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Santa Tracker

Proud2baLaker

Master of Science
Its getting to be that time of year again. NORADs Official Santa Tracker webpage has been open since Dec. 1st. You can also apparently follow it on Twitter and it has a facebook page as well with over 430,000 likes. I dont remember if this has always been the case but the page is now available in 7 languages. Here is a little history of how it all started.

I like this tradition and applaud all the people who take the time to make it happen. Im sure it makes a lot of kids very excited to be able to watch as Santa travels around the world and approaches their home.

Also I cant go through the holidays without looking up these Santa facts and having a good laugh:

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. But there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not completely rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children in the world (persons under 18). But since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, or Buddhist children, that reduces the workload by 85% of the total - leaving 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there is at least one good child per house.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000 th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding, etc. That means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, at tops 25-30 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming each child gets nothing more then a medium sized LEGO set (2 lbs), the sleigh is carrying 321300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting the 'flying reindeer' can pull TEN TIMES that normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine - we need 214200 reindeer. This increased the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh to 353430 tons. Again for comparison, this is four timed the weight of the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy per second, each. In short, they will burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and creating a deafening sonic boom in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa meanwhile, will be subject to centrifugal forces of 17500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250 lb Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by a 4,315,015 pound force. In conclusion, if Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas eve, he's now dead.
 
Re: Santa Tracker

In conclusion, if Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas eve, he's now dead.

And whomever came up with that ridiculous conclusion gets a large lump of coal in his Christmas stocking!

HO, HO, HO!

free_merry_christmas_screensaver-39679.jpg
 
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Re: Santa Tracker

I failed to note that as I was making the thread a commercial advertising the 24 hours of A Christmas Story came on. Now that is a great Christmas tradition. Hope to get at least a couple of watches in.
 
Re: Santa Tracker

I failed to note that as I was making the thread a commercial advertising the 24 hours of A Christmas Story came on. Now that is a great Christmas tradition. Hope to get at least a couple of watches in.

Most definitely. Last year I fell short of my record of 8.5 hours straight. Maybe this year I'll do better.:o
 
Re: Santa Tracker

So...this is the holiday where Jesus rises from the dead and consumes the flesh of the living, right?

Or is this the one where an underage virgin cheated on her fiance with the Holy Ghost, conceived, carried, and popped out baby Jesus, all while keeping her cherry intact, and not getting stoned to death for adultery or witchcraft? Meanwhile, the village of Bethlehem had a big neighborhood house decorating contest, pine trees were lit up, Jesus got the Playstation 3 he wanted, his father and uncles got drunk, everyone gathered around the table at 2 PM for a big ham feast, and there was a foot of snow on the ground because it was December.

I was a good Catholic schoolboy, and I definitely earned my A in 12th grade Church History, but I always got these two events confused. ;) :D

[/sacreligiousness]
 
Re: Santa Tracker

This is the holiday where three weirdos travel across the country to give presents to a baby whose family is shacked up in a barn because the hotel was sold out, and the manager didn't like blue-collar types staying at his establishment.
 
Re: Santa Tracker

This is the holiday where three weirdos travel across the country to give presents to a baby whose family is shacked up in a barn because the hotel was sold out, and the manager didn't like blue-collar types staying at his establishment.
Or it could almost describe a typical road trip to the UP! :eek:
 
Re: Santa Tracker

If my math is correct only 8 more hours till the Christmas Story-a-thon. Oh and Santa has started his journey. Currently in Russia redistributing gifts.
 
Re: Santa Tracker

Did Santa have to pass through TSA? Did he get "assaulted?"

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Re: Santa Tracker

Also I cant go through the holidays without looking up these Santa facts and having a good laugh:

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. But there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not completely rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children in the world (persons under 18). But since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, or Buddhist children, that reduces the workload by 85% of the total - leaving 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there is at least one good child per house.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000 th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding, etc. That means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, at tops 25-30 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming each child gets nothing more then a medium sized LEGO set (2 lbs), the sleigh is carrying 321300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting the 'flying reindeer' can pull TEN TIMES that normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine - we need 214200 reindeer. This increased the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh to 353430 tons. Again for comparison, this is four timed the weight of the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy per second, each. In short, they will burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and creating a deafening sonic boom in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa meanwhile, will be subject to centrifugal forces of 17500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250 lb Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by a 4,315,015 pound force. In conclusion, if Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas eve, he's now dead.

"Yeah, but man, he had some magic dust."
 
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